Drought deepens in Minnesota

Posted at 3:40 PM on July 16, 2009 by Paul Huttner (1 Comments)

I think it was Mark Twain that said; "It takes a flood to end a drought."

Residents around Brainerd and other parts of central Minnesota saw a flood Tuesday night and it did ease drought conditions. The rest of us would have liked to spread that rain around a little more.

Today's U.S. Drought Monitor shows the drought expanding in Minnesota. A full 73 percent of Minnesota is now listed as abnormally dry or in various stages of drought. That's up nearly 10 percent in a week and up from just 16 percent of the state 3 months ago.

Abnormally dry conditions now include the far North Shore, Ely, the BWCAW, and International Falls. Moderate drought conditions now extend from west-central Minnesota to St. Cloud, Duluth and up the North Shore to Silver Bay. The epicenter of the severe drought conditions now encompass the entire Twin Cities metro, and extend into northwest Wisconsin.

Parts of the Twin Cities are now a full 7 inches short on rainfall since April 1st. This time of year our average rainfall is about 1 inch per week in southern Minnesota. Most of the Twin Cities has not recorded any meaningful rainfall in the past 3 weeks.

There is no single good explanation for why the drought is hanging on near the Twin Cities. Surrounding areas in the Midwest have had ample rainfall this summer. It just appears to be one of those meteorological quirks that has weather systems going around us to the north or south. We like easy answers in weather. The weather maps don't always cooperate.

Another dry weekend is on the way. The next chance of rain looks to be early next week. Until then, enjoy the chilly July air, and hope for a good soaker next week.

PH

Comments (1)

As a climatologist how are you using recent findings regarding the phenomena of "global dimming" in your forecasting models? This phenomena would explain the drought as a direct effect of increased particulate matter in the atmosphere resulting from increased air pollution such as new coal fire plants which water vapor coalesces and does not precipitate. Testing for the existence of this phenomena is as simple as reviewing the average number of cloudy days and recorded pan evaporation over historical time periods.

Posted by Michael Miles | July 18, 2009 4:28 PM

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